Inanity 01-

Welcome to the City of Science.
Infiltration_Mission.

B.A.B.E.L. Headquarters-Chief's Office

It was a mild Autumn Day on September 20th. Three twelve year old girls were gathered at the headquarters of B.A.B.E.L., also known as the Base Backing ESP Laboratory, in front of their large and burly commander, Kiritsubo Taizou. These girls were the elite ESPers of Japan, the three Level 7s known as "The Children". These three girls were Sannomiya Shiho, Nogami Aoi, and Akashi Kaoru. Standing behind them was a man, named Minamoto Koichi, of normal build in a black suit with black hair and glasses.

"I'll just get straight to business, girls." Minamoto started. "Within the next week, you will be transferring out of your current school."

"What the hell is with this!?" Kaoru, a girl with shoulder length red hair and red eyes, screamed in surprise.

"Minamoto-han, I think we all deserve an explanation here." Aoi, the girl with waist length black hair and blue eyes, demanded.

The third girl, Sannomiya Shiho, a girl with shoulder length silver hair and purple eyes, remained surprisingly silent. However, there was an obvious expression of discontent molded onto her face as a result of the announcement.

"I would have given you an explanation had you not interrupted me." Minamoto replied calmly. Three years of babysitting "The Children" had left him somewhat hardened to their antics and outbursts. That being said, he still wasn't perfect when it came to dealing with them. "We are deploying you for a new mission. Unlike previous missions, however, this one will be a long-term investigation. I'm sure you've heard of Academy City, right?"

"The Western Bloc of Tokyo that is its own independent city-state, right?" Shiho replied.

"You mean the place where that Daihaseisai is taking place?" Kaoru asked with a highly eager expression.

"Exactly. Academy City consists of over 2 million residents and a good 80% of those residents are students. A majority of these students undergo some sort of ESPer development program including the normals." Minamoto continued. "These ESPers are ranked by a different standard than the commonly accepted international standard. Rather than the 1-7 scale normally used, they use a 0-5 scale. Within Academy City, only seven ESPers claim the title of Level 5.

"The remaining residents are teachers, professors, doctors, and, most importantly, researchers. At the same time, Academy City has connections to a large number of cooperative institutions. Due to these researchers, Academy City is believed to be thirty years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to technology and scientific discovery. This is what leads into the issue at hand.

"We have reason to believe that scientists in Academy City are performing large amounts of human research that violates international law and bioethics standards."

"So, we're supposed to infiltrate and investigate Academy City to find definite evidence of this supposed 'violation'." An annoyed Shiho attempted to finish Minamoto's statement.

"What!? Is that true, Minamoto-han!?" Aoi exclaimed in surprise.

"In essence, yes," Kiritsubo spoke up. "As insinuated, we do not have any hard evidence. However, we do have backings in the form of predictions. While many countries including our own have ignored this issue due to alliances with Academy City, B.A.B.E.L. will be acting without any government backing for this mission."

"There is one other mission objective. Due to the ESPer development within the city's borders, we feel that P.A.N.D.R.A. may attempt something. As such, we feel that it would be best to send the three of you.

"There is one anomaly that we had when planning this mission, however. When the effective change level of this mission was calculated, we received '∞'."

Tokiwadai Middle School

It was September 28th. The culmination of the Daihaseisai had passed three days ago. As such, the students were back to school again.

Shirai Kuroko sat at her desk while awaiting morning homeroom. She was in a very sour mood. The day before, she was taken off of her wheelchair since her injuries inflicted by Musujime Awaki on September 14th had recovered to the point where she could stand and walk on her own. Under normal circumstances, one would be happy about this kind of development. Being able to walk freely is something a lot of people would kill for. However, Kuroko was…different.

To her, being confined to a wheel chair meant that her beloved onee-sama, the unrivaled electric princess and the Ace of Tokiwadai, Misaka Mikoto, would not be as rough with her and would help take care of her. At the same time, more of Mikoto's attention would be placed onto her rather than that troglodyte, Kamijou Touma. To a girl like Kuroko, this period of injury was the ultimate bliss. Sadly, however, that bliss was never meant to be eternal.

As such, her days went back to what they used to be. In the end, getting the attention of her onee-sama once again became something she would have to work for.

In the end, September 28th would be like every other day- just a normal day in the life of Judgment Officer Shirai Kuroko at the 177th Branch. Well, that's what she thought.

The homeroom teacher whose name nobody bothered to remember entered the room. "Alright, today we will be having some new faces joining us."

The class went into a minor clamor over hearing this. Kuroko was genuinely surprised at the current turn of events. Transfer students were rare. The idea of a student transferring into Tokiwadai was almost ridiculous to most people considering that the students who entered had to be at least Level 3 ESPers. Yet, it was happening. What was weirder was that the words the nameless teacher spoke implied that there was more than one. It seemed like the kind of overused ploy that and inexperienced author would use to force characters to meet.

Kuroko rubbed her temples while trying to fathom how ridiculous this kind of event was.

"Alright, girls. Come on in."

With that announcement, three girls walked in. On the right was a silver haired girl. On the right was a black-haired girl. In the middle was a redhead.

"Now introduce yourselves."

"Sannomiya Shiho, Level 4 Psychometer."

"Nogami Aoi, Level 4 Move Point."

"Akashi Kaoru, Level 4 General Psychokinetist."

Kuroko, being the clever Judgment member she was, decided to analyze the situation before making a single utterance.

"Are~?"

A Certain High School

"…And so, this man will be your newest teachers starting today." The pink-haired, chain-smoking, beer-chugging loli teacher concluded her introduction of the new teacher. Standing next to her was a man in a black suit and turquoise tie. "His name is Minamoto Kouichi. Please treat him kindly."

"I am pleased to meet you all. I hope we all get along."

A spikey-haired boy, named Kamijou Touma, sitting in the back corner next to the window stared blankly at the new teacher in surprise. Normally, every new person he met including his teachers had their own quirks and could be quite eccentric. However, the new teacher standing in front of him felt different. He actually felt…normal. He wasn't a ten year old genius mage or something along those lines. He was just a well-built intellectual.

Two days had passed since the incident with the La Regina del Mare Adriatico. After laying adrift in the warm waters of the Adriatic Sea for a short period, his doctor had immediately had him transported via supersonic jet to Academy City so that the frog-faced doctor could examine him directly. As a result, his Italian vacation had been cut short.

Touma walked into school that day after being bitten by Index as usual. In the end, every event in his life since he could remember was some sort of crazy incident involving crazed ESPers or magicians. Everyone he met seemed to have some dark secret, though. Hell, he wouldn't be surprised even if Aogami Pierce was the 6th Level 5 hiding from the public eye. However, for the first time, Kamijou Touma felt relief in that something normal had entered his life even in the smallest respect. For the first time in his life, he felt that he could avoid having to mutter "Fukou da."

Well…everyone has a lapse in judgment at one point or another.

Hissy: Hello, all! This is my second story. Unlike my first story, this won't really have any underlying plot and will mainly be a comedy with a few dramatic developments.

Touma: Hey…uhm…that last sentence…

Hissy: What? You think you're gonna get off without a scratch? Think again, Touma.

Minamoto: I have an issue. You never took into account the fact that ESPer development has been happening in the ZKC-verse since at least World War II.

Hissy: Yeah…remember what Kuroko was thinking about when the transfer students for her class were announced…eheheh…

Minamoto: I think I'll just drop that subject. But, why would Academy City even find "The Children" to be interesting enough to transfer in?

Hissy: That is something I'll explain soon. Maybe in the next chapter…maybe… The hint is…SS2.

Well, Hyoubu Kyousuke will be entering the playing field soon and meeting with a certain Level 5.

Minamoto: Wait!? You're bringing HIM in!?

Hissy: Yeah…ZKC is no fun without our favorite troll. Hmm…I wonder if I could also bring Sakaki into this…

Anyways, on the next chapter, Touma gets off on the wrong foot with "The Children" and Mikoto facepalms.

Touma: Fukou da.

Hissy: That was fast…Look forward to it and remember to review.